Thousands of angry students across Australia have signed a petition calling for a change to the HECS debt indexation system.
Nariman Dein, a student at the University of Sydney, asked his followers to sign a petition to Education Minister Jason Clare and compared his HECS debt to buying a house.
In the current HECS program, the amount students owe is periodically adjusted according to current living costs and salaries.
Last year alone, HECS debts were hit by a 7.1 per cent increase, meaning students who owed $20,000 suddenly had to pay back $21,420.
A petition started on March 14 has already been signed by more than 200,000 Australian students who want indexation to be reduced.
They believe that indexation increases faster than they can pay their HECS, so each year they end up going further into debt despite making regular payments.
Sydney University student Nariman Dein (pictured) urged his followers to sign a petition to change the HECS debt indexation system.
Ms. Dein explained in a video on Monday that she did not realize that the indexation, which she called interest, would be added to her debt.
“I was under the impression that I was going to go to college, I have a huge debt, but I can pay it off when I start earning enough and the amount of money I owe on my college debt doesn’t change,” he said.
‘But you have to pay interest rates based on where you are at the moment. It doesn’t even make any difference to your debt, because you’re just paying interest.
“You think you’re paying your debt, but you’re not.”
No interest is paid on HECS debt, but indexation adjusts each year on June 1.
Ms Dein also criticized the government for increasing indexation at such a high rate last year despite the cost of living crisis.
‘There is a crisis underway. “People can’t afford to buy food, people can’t afford to buy a house, people can’t afford to do anything,” she said.
“However, (the government) says, ‘Yeah, okay, you can pay off your debt, if you ever pay it, for the next 50 years.’
“Sorry, I didn’t know getting an education would be similar to buying a house.”
Independent Melbourne Teal MP Monique Ryan started the HECS petition earlier this month because “more than a million Australians saw their HECS debt grow faster than it was being repaid due to an unfair indexation system”.
“Last year the government made more money from our HECS debts than from its main fossil fuel tax,” he said.
‘We should celebrate students going to university, not burden them with a lifetime of debt.
“Young people are facing a housing crisis, a cost of living crisis and a climate crisis – they shouldn’t also be facing a HECS debt crisis.”
Instead, Dr Ryan suggested that the government “apply the lowest indexation rate in a year, so that no one’s debt increases faster than they can pay it.”
Independent Melbourne Teal MP Monique Ryan (pictured) started the petition, which now has more than 200,000 signatures, earlier this month.
Hundreds of commenters on Dein’s video said they had never realized their debt was affected by indexing.
‘Brother what?! What interest?! ‘No one told me!’ wrote one.
“This makes me want to cry,” said another.
“Australia needs at least 80 per cent of its adult population to attend university or TAFE to really function as a country, so why not make it free?” wrote another.
However, not everyone agreed with Ms. Dein’s video.
That’s why you pay as you go. It’s the same amount as my car payments each week. “Everyone takes the easy way out using HECS, but it’s not hard to pay as you go if you’re good with your money,” one wrote.
“It’s the same amount of money, it’s just that the Australian currency is worth less money than when you applied for the loan,” said another.
A third commenter wrote: ‘Gen Z here, I already paid off my HECS debt ($100k+) by myself and it only took me about a year. There are no excuses.’
Mrs. Dein replied: “Not everyone is able to do that, you are very disconnected.”